Fall of Corporations I: Premonition
Fall of Corporations I: Premonition '''is the first saga of Fall of Corporations timeline. Story Very similar to Micoda's awakening in Dystopia I, the events of the saga begin with Micoda's self-realization as he finds himself in a gladiator arena facing an unknown opponent, re-connecting with Spirit of Khalmotep as it left Godhunter in the interlude. His memory for a long period is lost and over 15 years have passed since he fell into a coma at the Battle for Humanity's Future, the final battle against Phantom of the Apocalypses. After Micoda defeats his opponent, a man who seems to own the arena walks by and slams his palm to Micoda's chest, drawing out the power of Paradox from Micoda and absorbs it into himself. He says that his name is Tarkus, and that one day, if Micoda wishes, they can fight. Micoda considers him impossible to defeat in his current state, similar to how Grex's presence affected him in Dystopia II. He looks to leave as he was brought there by someone, but he finds that the man who brought him there was his old ally, Neolin of Revolution Realm, dead on the street. He is frustrated but sees no other way than to find out his current location, and he does, after a while. In fact, he is in a city so large that he couldn't have imagined it to exist: The Metropolis. He finds the outskirts of the town, noticing that he and the incredibly large city are in the middle of Sepmornian continent in Second Universe, in the desert but technologically sustained. He understands that while all might change, some things never do, and leaves for the place he has considered a safe haven throughout the years, Revolution Realm. After discussing with his old ally Seleka, he realizes that he fell into a coma as almost all of the guardians fell dead, as Welkere sacrificed himself in the final battle against Phantom of the Apocalypses. Now, after bringing back Micoda by forcing him into a similar situtation where he awakened in Dystopia timeline, Seleka says he hoped that they can start to uncover some mysteries of The Metropolis. Micoda understands the reasoning. Seleka explains that The Metropolis is almost too good to be true, and with corporations having large influence on things. The three largest of them are Argus Corporation, formerly First Corporation which technically acts as the foundation of The Metropolis; Hellgren Group which is the main rival of Argus; and finally Marolos Group, a religionally oriented group following the prophetic supreme elemental Marolos. Seleka seems to consider the Spirit of Khalmotep to have vanished entirely, and Micoda (under the control of the Spirit of Khalmotep) does not correct him. Micoda checks out some history and finds out that the Titans, who destroyed his realm, might still be alive. He walks into Nether and finds a secret passageway to a hidden prison under the Nether. In there, he finds Ardeet and Evar still alive. From them, he learns that they were trapped there by Phantom of the Apocalypses along with Queen Memoxara and Kor the Negotiator, the last surviving titan. However, both of them had escaped earlier. Micoda returns with the good news and old allies to the Revolution Realm, where he is greeted by a mysterious man in green. He takes Micoda to the side and tells him that he is called Timothy and in "the purging incident" at the end of Dystopia timeline, he was indeed present. In fact, there is a compelling argument to be made whether Micoda's awakening at this time was a coincidence. He shows Micoda a video clip, revealing that just days before, an enigmatic foe who wished for world destruction under the name The Magician, was spotted in the city centre. Timothy also tells him that he has been tracking The Magician for a long time and his resurgence like this cannot mean anything good. However, Micoda simply appearing at the city might prompt The Magician to appear. Timothy also leaves a green notebook with Micoda in order to contact him and leaves. Micoda finally gathers his thoughts and leaves to The Metropolis to a Revolution Realm owned safehouse with also the objective of acting as a bait. Micoda enters the city's main square and experiences a vision of the future. ------ ''In the vision he stands quite still, watching the exact same area where he is standing but it is wrecked by a strange explosion, and a young rebellious man saying that Micoda could have prevented this.''' ----- Unable to think clearly of the event, he only knows that he did not know the young rebellious man, and decides that he has more pressing concerns as he has little to go on. He finds out that The Magician did appear near a building owned by CRYPTIC, a special police force, a sort of crime fighting unit operating secretly. They are strongly trusted by the populace due to their great performance. However he decides not to try entering. He re-enters the guarded but seemingly hidden Revolution Realm safehouse only to find that someone is sitting on the couch behind him. It is the same man as in the vision, who introduces himself as Garam. He has a very refined underground look, and wears red goggles. Micoda notes that he is exceptionally gifted at masking his presence, and was able to surprise even Micoda by entering a safe house without him or his guards noticing. According to himself, he is interested in finding out ''"what makes the city tick, since the city has to be harboring some kind of secret". As Micoda leaves the place afterwards to talk to people in Revolution Realm, he experiences a strange sensation. The Spirit of Khalmotep is reacting to something, and it leaves to see the next chapter of the mission of Godhunter. As Godhunter decides to infiltrate a system of caves in the middle of Sepmornian desert, he managed to convince two priestesses to help him. However, one of them turned out to be the Milatha, Goddess of Passion herself, who managed to attack her but missed, killing the priestess instead. Godhunter achieved killing her by being faster and smarter, and returned to his lair to heal his wounds. It turned out that Godhunter had been storing the essences of slain gods in an essence forge called Pool of Fates. The Godhunter then demonstrated his might over the Spirit of Khalmotep by extracting it and telling it to "tell him what happened here". However, the Spirit of Khalmotep entered the body of a man in the National Research Institute by the name Dr. Kilixis, a specialist in energy shifts in nature. Dr. Kilixis told his assistant to not tell anyone of their plans and retreated to his room, where he had piled up tons of information and written implications to his journal about the shady operations of Argus Corporation. His notes suggest that he is nearing the state of paranoia, unwilling to write any concrete proof down himself. Among the findings is that strange energy shifts he tracked took place around The Metropolis itself. Before the Spirit of Khalmotep can form a plan to use the information, a scream echoes through the corridor. Dr. Kilixis rushes and finds his assistant, Oliver Goss, in his own room twisting in pain. However, before Dr. Kilixis can react, he sees a strange spirit and Oliver stabs him in the heart under the influence of that spirit. Dr. Kilixis blacks out. Next, the spirit comes to Ferengeil. He is preparing to attend a meeting in the slums, cloaked under a powerful illusion technique that makes him appear as simply a cloaked old man in a wheelchair. His assistant, Nagash of 17 Eyes, is excused, and he enters the building alone. Within the building, ten very powerful men, including Ferengeil himself under his infamous alias "Diablos", sit down in a circle. They are the Ten Gladiator Kings, an organization consisting of powerful combatants with many of them having strong business connections. Their leader and the chairman of the organization is revealed to be Tarkus, the same man who stole the powers of Paradox from Micoda, as he appears to host them. Tarkus informs them of a powerful terrorist attack that took place that morning in the Main Square of The Metropolis. He assures the Ten Gladiator Kings present that there is a chance that some of them may be considered suspects, but if such problems arise, he will take care of them because they are "like a family". None of them admit to be involved, and while some question if anyone among the ten of them could be motivated to commit such terrors, especially the infamous Trenichar von Arcatem, they agree that it's not likely. Tarkus is glad that their operations, including the diamond smuggling operation of Ashamann and weapon purchases by Mortimer Pace, are going as planned and there was only a generally satisfactory discussion about the incident. He then adjourns the Kings, and Ferengeil leaves, knowing that he must witness the scene of the incident with his own eyes. Ferengeil quickly checks the scene of the incident and confirms that the strange explosion has wrecked the Main Square, just like in Micoda's vision. It also appears that the secret police CRYPTIC has sealed off the scene to investigate it, and Ferengeil leaves to his group's headquarters. Ferengeil teleports to the headquarters of Ferengeil's secretly owned Inferno Group, which focuses on providing security services and guards in the northern part of the city. The clientele are mostly logistics companies with warehouses who follow the word of Prophet Marolos. His inner circle consists of the same four loyal people that used to serve him in the Dystopia timeline: former monk Brimstone (the official group CEO), former infamous murderer Robert Baramov and former infamous gladiators Nagash of 17 Eyes and Casper LeMarr. He mobilizes them to find out more about the incident, but none of them find any clues. Right as Robert Baramov attempts to leave to look again, he comes back around to the group's top floor offices. Ferengeil immediately senses the irregularity of Robert's actions and tries to hit him. However, Robert defends himself. A surge of Might of Darkness rises from it, and it calls out to the Spirit with Robert's mouth: "I am the Spirit of Hunted Gods. I have come to show you that whoever you possess, I will come and I will kill them. You cannot defeat me." Feeling slightly intimidated by these words, Spirit of Khalmotep leaves the body of Ferengeil. It was hoping that the conflict would be resolved by its departure. However, Ferengeil prepares for an all-out battle, armed with Soulfire, before Spirit of Khalmotep leaves the scene. Continues in Fall of Corporations II. Themes * The city of corporations, promising a better life with advancements in healthcare, entertainment and other things. ** However, such a massive expansion might have been built on lies and deceit. While the new technology is powerful and attracts a lot of people, Dr. Kilixis's research confirmed strange changes in nature. *** Garam, the mysterious young man, is trying to find out the secret of the city, as he thinks it's hiding a massive one. * The new beings who are referred to as gods and the man who hunts them. ** What is the goal of the gods, and why does the "Godhunter", a blind archer, want to kill them, when no one in The Metropolis even knows that they exist? And what connection does he have with the Spirit of Khalmotep? *** Godhunter also identifies Micoda as a hero vital to the upcoming tasks as he seemed to sense after killing Chronos that the Spirit of Khalmotep should go and help Micoda, meaning he possibly knew of Micoda's awakening. ** Spirit of Hunted Gods is definitely an enemy not to mess with, showing its true colors very early and having some very disturbing powers to make the exploration of the new world very complicated. Whether it's just malice from beyond the grave or something closely associated with the gods remains to be seen. * The prophecy of Marolos becoming true, and the vision of the destruction of the Main Square that turned out to be true. ** Marolos has become a powerful, recognized prophet, having a strong following. ** The young man Garam and the ominous message "You could have prevented this", of both hope looking in the future and the disappointment of looking back upon it. If the conversation indeed happened this way, then Garam was surely disappointed in the lack of action.